Growth of the Fediverse (20260720)
Takeaways:
- All-Time MAU Peak (in last 7 Days): Piefed(6377), Writefreely(79931)
- Positive Daily Growth (6+ of last 7 Days): Piefed(7/7), Mastodon(7/7), NodeBB(7/7), Writefreely(7/7), Bookwyrm(6/7), Vernissage(7/7), Flohmarkt(6/7)
- Weekly Growth (>5%, >500 MAU): Piefed(+7.8%), NodeBB(+5.0%), Writefreely(+565.6%), Bookwyrm(+5.3%)
- Piefed finally broke its previous all-time maximum (6179, 2026-03-01) on 2026-07-15.
- Piefed is likely under-counted by a couple hundred MAU (due to an activity error, corrected in v1.7) as about half (5/9) of the "medium-sized" instances (30 < size < 300 MAU) haven't upgraded yet. Also, an additional couple hundred from piefed.zip, not counted by fediverse.observer.
- Writefreely absolutely blew up in the last couple days. Not sure why. Their V0.17 released a couple days ago, but most of the large servers I checked hadn't upgraded yet. Maybe a change on fediverse.observer's end (but not a software change, last update looks like 3 months ago)?
Monthly Active Users^[1]^:
| Software | Current | Yesterday[1D] | Last Week[7D] | Last Month[30D] | 3 Months Ago[90D] | 6 Months Ago[180D] | 1 Year Ago[365D] | All-Time Maximum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Piefed | 6377 | 6315 | 5914 | 3955 | 4878 | 1990 | 1650 | 6377 |
| Lemmy | 35061 | 35156 | 35173 | 35191 | 36666 | 35483 | 41369 | 72618 |
| Mbin | 1084 | 1081 | 1092 | 785 | 730 | 732 | 930 | 3967 |
| Threadiverse | 42522 | 42552 | 42179 | 39931 | 42274 | 38205 | 43949 | |
| Mastodon | 839406 | 838899 | 834052 | 727182 | 1032989 | 720398 | 729182 | 2737163 |
| NodeBB | 61659 | 61566 | 58697 | 62304 | 74724 | 46251 | 50067 | 76801 |
| Pixelfed | 88923 | 87236 | 92555 | 108386 | 106477 | 109845 | 124529 | 338813 |
| Peertube | 46973 | 47259 | 47563 | 50722 | 43882 | 26961 | 29745 | 53333 |
| Writefreely | 79931 | 28742 | 12008 | 10316 | 2855 | 1421 | 11639 | 79931 |
| Loops | 4147 | 4175 | 4460 | 4498 | 4092 | 2578 | 26036 | 29821 |
| Bookwyrm | 1178 | 1184 | 1119 | 1200 | 2006 | 3634 | 2975 | 9429 |
| NeoDB | 1759 | 1763 | 1744 | 1761 | 1851 | 1994 | 1727 | 2025 |
| Friendica | 2417 | 2425 | 2380 | 2460 | 2487 | 1406 | 1839 | 4734 |
| Forgejo | 116 | 115 | 129 | 124 | 115 | 504 | 258 | 1168 |
| Catodon | 100 | 100 | 100 | 110 | 120 | 0 | 0 | 128 |
| Funkwhale | 156 | 163 | 163 | 191 | 237 | 217 | 279 | 1114 |
| Vernissage | 163 | 160 | 137 | 154 | 140 | 129 | 95 | 168 |
| Flohmarkt | 18 | 17 | 11 | 16 | 24 | 26 | 0 | 40 |
| Fediverse | 1169468 | 1116356 | 1097297 | 1009355 | 1314273 | 953569 | 1022320 |
Difference^[1]^:
| Software | -1 Day[1D] | -1 Week[7D] | -1 Month[30D] | -3 Months[90D] | -6 Months[180D] | -1 Year[365D] | -All-Time Maximum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Piefed | 62 | 463 | 2422 | 1499 | 4387 | 4727 | 0 |
| Lemmy | -95 | -112 | -130 | -1605 | -422 | -6308 | -37557 |
| Mbin | 3 | -8 | 299 | 354 | 352 | 154 | -2883 |
| Threadiverse | -30 | 343 | 2591 | 248 | 4317 | -1427 | |
| Mastodon | 507 | 5354 | 112224 | -193583 | 119008 | 110224 | -1897757 |
| NodeBB | 93 | 2962 | -645 | -13065 | 15408 | 11592 | -15142 |
| Pixelfed | 1687 | -3632 | -19463 | -17554 | -20922 | -35606 | -249890 |
| Peertube | -286 | -590 | -3749 | 3091 | 20012 | 17228 | -6360 |
| Writefreely | 51189 | 67923 | 69615 | 77076 | 78510 | 68292 | 0 |
| Loops | -28 | -313 | -351 | 55 | 1569 | -21889 | -25674 |
| Bookwyrm | -6 | 59 | -22 | -828 | -2456 | -1797 | -8251 |
| NeoDB | -4 | 15 | -2 | -92 | -235 | 32 | -266 |
| Friendica | -8 | 37 | -43 | -70 | 1011 | 578 | -2317 |
| Forgejo | 1 | -13 | -8 | 1 | -388 | -142 | -1052 |
| Catodon | 0 | 0 | -10 | -20 | 0 | 0 | -28 |
| Funkwhale | -7 | -7 | -35 | -81 | -61 | -123 | -958 |
| Vernissage | 3 | 26 | 9 | 23 | 34 | 68 | -5 |
| Flohmarkt | 1 | 7 | 2 | -6 | -8 | 0 | -22 |
| Fediverse | 53112 | 72171 | 160113 | -144805 | 215899 | 147148 |
Change (%)^[1]^:
| Software | -1 Day[1D] | -1 Week[7D] | -1 Month[30D] | -3 Months[90D] | -6 Months[180D] | -1 Year[365D] | -All-Time Maximum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Piefed | 1.0% | 7.8% | 61.2% | 30.7% | 220.5% | 286.5% | 0.0% |
| Lemmy | -0.3% | -0.3% | -0.4% | -4.4% | -1.2% | -15.2% | -51.7% |
| Mbin | 0.3% | -0.7% | 38.1% | 48.5% | 48.1% | 16.6% | -72.7% |
| Threadiverse | -0.1% | 0.8% | 6.5% | 0.6% | 11.3% | -3.2% | |
| Mastodon | 0.1% | 0.6% | 15.4% | -18.7% | 16.5% | 15.1% | -69.3% |
| NodeBB | 0.2% | 5.0% | -1.0% | -17.5% | 33.3% | 23.2% | -19.7% |
| Pixelfed | 1.9% | -3.9% | -18.0% | -16.5% | -19.0% | -28.6% | -73.8% |
| Peertube | -0.6% | -1.2% | -7.4% | 7.0% | 74.2% | 57.9% | -11.9% |
| Writefreely | 178.1% | 565.6% | 674.8% | 2699.7% | 5525.0% | 586.8% | 0.0% |
| Loops | -0.7% | -7.0% | -7.8% | 1.3% | 60.9% | -84.1% | -86.1% |
| Bookwyrm | -0.5% | 5.3% | -1.8% | -41.3% | -67.6% | -60.4% | -87.5% |
| NeoDB | -0.2% | 0.9% | -0.1% | -5.0% | -11.8% | 1.9% | -13.1% |
| Friendica | -0.3% | 1.6% | -1.7% | -2.8% | 71.9% | 31.4% | -48.9% |
| Forgejo | 0.9% | -10.1% | -6.5% | 0.9% | -77.0% | -55.0% | -90.1% |
| Catodon | 0.0% | 0.0% | -9.1% | -16.7% | 0.0% | 0.0% | -21.9% |
| Funkwhale | -4.3% | -4.3% | -18.3% | -34.2% | -28.1% | -44.1% | -86.0% |
| Vernissage | 1.9% | 19.0% | 5.8% | 16.4% | 26.4% | 71.6% | -3.0% |
| Flohmarkt | 5.9% | 63.6% | 12.5% | -25.0% | -30.8% | 0.0% | -55.0% |
| Fediverse | 4.8% | 6.6% | 15.9% | -11.0% | 22.6% | 14.4% |
Tracker Comparison^[1,2]^:
| Software | Fediverse-Observer^[1]^ | FediDB ^[2]^ |
|---|---|---|
| Piefed | 6377 | 7029 |
| Lemmy | 35061 | 44781 |
| Mbin | 1084 | 1333 |
| Threadiverse | 42522 | 53143 |
| Mastodon | 839406 | 969531 |
| NodeBB | 61659 | 15955 |
| Pixelfed | 88923 | 92895 |
| Peertube | 46973 | 44279 |
| Writefreely | 79931 | 80033 |
| Loops | 4147 | 4274 |
| Bookwyrm | 1178 | 3410 |
| NeoDB | 1759 | 1774 |
| Friendica | 2417 | 3111 |
| Forgejo | 116 | 1668 |
| Catodon | 100 | 0 |
| Funkwhale | 156 | 724 |
| Vernissage | 163 | 183 |
| Flohmarkt | 18 | 0 |
| Fediverse | 1169468 | 1270980 |
- Source: [1] Fediverse-Observer, [2] FediDB, Analysis Code
Notes:
- Threadiverse is Piefed, Lemmy, and Mbin. Fediverse only accounts for listed software [17], not the other [112] software tracked by Fediverse-Observer.
- Fediverse-Observer provides daily MAU back to 20221130. FediDB only provides a current snapshot (snapshot within the last 15 minutes, no time series data) and only tracks some of the software [67].
- FediDB seems to use unclear math to get there counts and overestimate the MAU on most software (see previous post, if interested in learning more).
Edit: Added mention about a couple hundred MAU from piefed.zip missing from the Piefed total.
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